Personal computer enclosure with peripheral device mounting system

ABSTRACT

An enclosure or chassis for a high-performance personal computer which is portable, provides easy access to its internal components for servicing, and provides mechanisms which allow peripheral devices such as hard disks, floppy disks and CD-ROM drives to be quickly and easily installed and removed. The chassis provides an efficient cooling mechanism so that a heat sink required for a high-performance processor can be smaller than would be the case without such efficient cooling mechanism. The chassis opens up into a top portion and a bottom portion. The top portion houses the peripheral devices, and the bottom portion houses the motherboard, power supply and cooling fans. A tamper switch is provided which monitors the state of the chassis (open or closed) and reports over a network whenever the chassis is opened. However, the computer can still be operated when the chassis is opened for inspection, service and repair. A mechanism which enables quick and easy removal of the peripheral devices utilizes a spring clip which provides solid grounding contact to the chassis is also provided.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The in invention is directed to the field of personal computerenclosures, particularly to enclosures which are compact and includeefficient cooling mechanisms and a design which enables componentswithin the enclosure to be easily serviced, installed, removed andreinstalled.

For example, Henneberg et al., U.S. Pat. 4,748,540 , is directed to acomputer system including cards, power supplies, peripheral units,cooling units and cables which are packaged within a small enclosure ina way which permits sufficient airflow from front to rear of theenclosure for ventilation. The enclosure includes a hinged lift-off topcover, front and rear attachable panels and attachable side panels, thepanels being attachable to the frame of the enclosure by screws or pins.To service the equipment, one or more of the attachable panels must beremoved.

In Hileman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,244 , a computer housing isdescribed having a cover and a base with both a left surface and rightsurface of the cover perforated with vents to allow the passage of airthrough the housing. The cover Is pivotally attached to the base so thatit can be pivotally separated from the base. All of the units formingthe computer system are installed on the base.

Due to the heat generated by components forming a computer system duringoperation, small enclosed cabinets used for such components generallyrequire the incorporation of fans to ensure a proper flow of air.Representative prior art patents include Tragen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,445, Cope et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,291 and Bailey--U.S. Pat. No.5,107,398 . In Tragen, one or more fans are mounted on a plate rackforming a fan drawer which is guided by a pair of spaced guide railswhich guide the fan drawer into position so the fans can be quickly andeasily removed for service or replacement without having to remove theelectronic components from the protected cabinet. In Cope et al., acooling system for a personal computer includes an intake fan andexhaust openings, one of which includes an exhaust fan which divertssome of the air-flow to increase the flow of air over the power supply.The fans are activated as needed to meet increased demand for cooling.In Bailey, an air circulation device is provided which is mounted insidethe cabinet of a computer.

The invention also includes a mechanism which enables the quick and easyinstallation and removal of peripheral devices from an enclosure inwhich they are installed. The prior art typically does not provide aquick and easy mechanism for removing peripheral devices. Typically, inthe prior art, attachment hardware is needed for a mechanism used tohold peripheral devices in place using mounting holes and bolts whichpass through the mounting holes into a bracket in which the peripheraldevice had been previously installed.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed to an enclosure or chassis for ahigh-performance personal computer which is portable, provides easyaccess to its internal components for servicing, and provides mechanismswhich allow peripheral devices such as hard disks, floppy disks andCD-ROM drives to be quickly and easily installed and removed.

The chassis is also designed to provide an efficient cooling mechanismso that a heat sink required for a high-performance processor can besmaller than would be the case without such efficient cooling mechanism.In this manner, an overall more compact design can be realized.

The chassis opens up into a top portion and a bottom portion. The topportion houses the peripheral devices, and the bottom portion houses themotherboard, power supply and cooling fans. A tamper switch is providedwhich monitors the state of the chassis (open or closed) and reportsover a network whenever the chassis is opened. However, the computer canstill be operated when the chassis is opened for inspection, service andrepair.

The mechanism which enables quick and easy removal of the peripheraldevices utilizes a spring clip which provides solid grounding contact tothe chassis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the invented chassis in an open positionshowing typical components of a personal computer installed in thechassis.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the invented chassis.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a motherboard and card cage sub-chassisaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a pair of peripheral device mountingbrackets according to the present invention with a peripheral deviceshown in shadow lines.

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of one of the brackets shown in FIG. 4with an installed peripheral device.

FIG. 6 is a side elevation view of one of the brackets shown in FIG. 4prior to installing a peripheral device.

FIG. 7 is a side elevation view of one of the brackets shown in FIG. 4while installing (or removing) a peripheral device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, a chassis used for installing components of apersonal computer according to the present invention is shown. Thechassis 11 includes two main components, a bottom portion 13 into whicha motherboard, power supply, card cage and cooling fans of a personalcomputer are installed and a top portion 15 is used to hold peripheraldevices such as floppy disk drives, hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives.The chassis also includes hinges 21aand 21bwhich connect the twoportions together and serve as a pivot to enable the top portion toclose down upon the bottom portion so as to engage latch 25.

The chassis also includes a switch 31 which generates an active signalwhen the chassis is open, i.e., when the top portion is not closed downupon the bottom portion so that the switch, which pops-up when pressurefrom the top portion is removed, changes state from open to closed orfrom closed to open depending on the system design. Although the switchis shown near the rear of the chassis, it may be located at any pointalong the edge of the chassis.

Typical components installed in the bottom portion of chassis 11 aremotherboard 35, card cage rear slots 38 (part of card cage 37 as shownin FIG. 3) for holding in place peripheral cards 39 installed in slotson the motherboard, a power supply 41, fans 43a and 43b, and fan guardand front card cage slots 47 which are part of card cage 37. The chassisalso includes vents 27 and control switches and lights 29 for turningpower on and off, resetting the computer and providing statusinformation. Vents 27 are also provided on the rear and side portions ofthe top half 15 of the chassis. The chassis has a form factor which isvery compact with dimensions just slightly larger than needed to holdtypical standard sized components. For example, typically the height ofbottom half 13 is five inches, the width is 10 inches and the length is17 inches. Typical dimensions for the top half are two inch height, 10inch width and 17 inch length. With these dimensions, the chassis canhold a standard sized motherboard 35 whose dimensions are approximately13 inches by 8 inches, standard sized peripheral boards 19, whosedimensions are 4 inches high with a length upto 131/4 inches, andstandard sized peripheral devices such as hard disk drives and CD-ROMdrives having a height of 1.5 inches or less, in a minimal amount ofspace which still provides easy access for servicing.

Specifically, the motherboard is installed parallel to and adjacent tothe bottom surface of card cage 37 and the peripheral devices areinstalled in top portion 15 in a single layer so that the bottom surfaceof each drive is adjacent the inside bottom surface of the top half. Asshown in FIGS. 1 and 2, for typical component sizes, four peripheraldevices may be placed in top half 15, two in front and two in the rear.The two units in the front would typically be units which require thatremovable media be inserted such as floppy disks or CD-ROMs, while harddisk drives which do not have removable media would be installed at theback of top half 15. In this manner, floppy disks or CD-ROMs may beinserted into slots 63a or 63b provided at the front of top half 15.

Other components of the personal computer such as memory and theprocessor are installed on the motherboard as is typical in the art.Preferably, the processor 57 is installed near the front of themotherboard relatively close to fans 43a and 43b and there should be noobstructions (other than fan guard 47) between the fans and the topsurface of the processor so as to provide maximum cooling to theprocessor.

FIG. 3 shows the details of motherboard and card cage sub-chassis 37holding a full size card 39a, show in shadow, between rear slots 37 andfront slots 47. Motherboard 35, shown partially broken away, is alsoshown installed within sub-chassis 37. Sub-chassis 37 fits inside bottomportion 13 and is held in place by thumb screws 58 (only one is shown,the other is at the opposite end which cannot be seen in FIG. 3. Thethumb screws also pass through an installed motherboard to hold it inplace as well. The sub-chassis is dimensioned to accept all currentlycommercially available motherboards. Given the rapid change oftechnology, the design allows easy field upgrades of the motherboard,without tools, by loosening the thumb screws, lifting the oldmotherboard out and inserting a new motherboard into the sub-chassis.

The chassis may also include brackets 45a and 45b having an attachedresilient layer 49 which engages the tops of cards 39 installed in slots39a in motherboard 35 when the chassis is in a closed position to holdthe cards in place. Examples of cards which may be installed in suchslots are modem cards, parallel printer port cards, additional memorycards and the like. A set of cables 51 provide an electrical connectionbetween the components in the bottom half of the chassis and thecomponents in the top half of the chassis for data, address and controlsignals. Power is supplied to the components in the top half of thechassis by cable 53.

Optionally, a lock 61 may be provided so that the chassis can be lockedin a closed position.

By this design, i.e., placing peripheral devices such as disk drives andCD-ROM drives in the top half of the chassis and placing the remainingcomponents of a personal computer such as its motherboard, power supplyand cards in the bottom portion of the chassis, a very compact design isrealized which can be easily serviced since all the components areeasily reached when the chassis is in an open position.

The invented chassis also utilizes brackets 65 to hold peripheraldevices such as disk drives and CD-ROM drives as best seen in FIGS. 4-7.The brackets are physically attached to the chassis by screws, blindrivets or the like and are arranged in pairs which are spaced apart sothat standard-sized peripheral components can be easily installed andremoved without the use of tools.

A suitable bracket for this purpose is shown in FIGS. 4-7. The bracketsare made of spring stainless steel such as 0.025 inch thick springstainless steel 3014 hard. As best seen in FIG. 4, the bracket has abottom portion 71 which is attached to the chassis by screws or rivetsthrough holes 73 as noted above. A side portion 77 extending from thebottom portion is angled inwards towards where the peripheral devicewould be mounted. A typical inward angle for this purpose is 80° to 85°as shown in FIG. 6. At the top of side portion, there is an engagingflange 81 which runs the length of the side portion so as to fit overthe top surface of a peripheral device after it has been installed asshown in FIG. 5. The engaging flange forms a semicircle offset from theside portion. Preferably, the offset 83 is 0.05 inch from the sideportion and the semicircular portion has a radius of 0.125 inch. Theengaging flange, which extends above the top surface of the peripheraldevice, can be spread slightly outwardly by applying pressure whichenables the peripheral device to be removed as shown in FIG. 7. Forinstallation, the peripheral device simply is placed on to the mountingbrackets and is snapped into place by hand pressure. Of course,appropriate cables must be attached and removed from the peripheraldevices as appropriate.

We claim:
 1. A chassis for installation of components of a personalcomputer system, said personal computer system including a motherboard,said motherboard including a plurality of slots for holding cardsinstalled perpendicular to said motherboard, a plurality of peripheraldevices and at least one cooling fan, said chassis comprising:a) a topportion dimensioned and adapted for installation of said plurality ofperipheral devices in a single layer; b) a bottom portion hingedlycoupled to said top portion, said bottom portion dimensioned and adaptedfor installation of i) said motherboard parallel to and adjacent to abottom surface of said bottom portion; and ii) said at least one coolingfan, c) a bracket disposed in said top portion having a resilient layercoupled thereto, said bracket and resilient layer arranged so that theresilient layer engages a top edge of said cards installed in said slotson said motherboard when the chassis is in said closed position, whereinduring normal operation of said personal computer system, said topportion and said bottom portion are arranged such that said chassis isin a closed position.
 2. The chassis defined by claim 1 furthercomprising a switch which generates a signal when said top portion andsaid bottom portion cease to be arranged such that the chassis is insaid closed position.
 3. The chassis defined by claim 1 wherein said atleast one cooling fan is disposed adjacent a front side of said bottomportion perpendicular to said bottom surface.
 4. The chassis defined byclaim 1 further comprising a lock which engages said top portion andsaid bottom portion when said lock is in a closed position and saidchassis is in said closed position.